The Borks Invade Canada

Mom and Dad Bork just got back from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and they had a wonderful time. Mom made another new friend (remember Honest Abe a few months ago? This guy's even better!)



They saw Hamlet (wonderful!), Cabaret (excellent!), and an adaptation of Moby Dick (interesting...) that turned out to be a ballet (hmph. now that's just odd.). But the trip was an overall success, which is the most important part. The plays, the shopping, and the food were all great.

It's also PAULA BORK'S BIRTHDAY today, and she's celebrating tonight with a dinner. We couldn't make it because of the Henry Tail situation (we've been invited to hang out on a boat tomorrow afternoon for the Air and Water show, and we had to miss that, too). He'll finally get his stitches out on Thursday evening, so we'll be in the clear of our 24-hours-of-every-day-for-two-weeks-with-Henry vacation. I love him, but sometimes we just want to go to the movies. Or dinner. Or on a boat. So in the meantime, he's posed for us to make us remember how ridiculously adorable he is.

Henry Goes to College

He didn't take a class, or anything, but he's the first family member (and probably the last) to see my new office at MCC. I went to school to turn in my final grades for the summer session, and I started the office "nesting" process: general dusting, putting books on my new bookshelves, moving my desk, chair, and computer. Because of Henry's bandaged tail and stapled stomach, we can't leave him alone just yet, so he made the road trip with me and then helped me in my office (as long as "helping" translates to drinking some water, spilling some water on the floor, and staring out of the office window into the hall to smile at passers-by). He got to meet my new mentor, Robert, and the three lovely secretary ladies, Linnea, Cheryl, and Missy. They all loved him, and he loved them, too, showing his affection through his trademark leaping licks. I can't wait to go back next week to continue organizing books and files. Even though I've only just finished with class, I'm super jazzed to get back to Fall semester now that I'll have a permanent place to work. I've already been looking at office supplies on-line, and Monday I'm going to take a trip to The Container Store and Office Depot to stock up on totally, absolutely, quantifiably necessary office supplies. Paper-clips, here I come!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on my handsome summer students (this first picture is of my last College of Lake County class, who [don't tell anyone] were my favorite class of all time, in any school, ever, although it's missing one of my super-favorite students, Will, so picture a tough looking football player in here somewhere.)


These are my two MCC classes--the big one is a Comp 2 class (my oral history exploration, such a fun class), and the little one is a Comp 1 class)



Next week I'll have a picture of my office, so you can all picture me grading papers and planning lessons. Really, it's such an exciting life I lead!

A Much Shorter Happy Tail

After two years of spraying blood around our clothes, our condo, our building, and our neighborhood due to the cut-that-wouldn't-heal, Henry's 'happy tail' is gone.



Yesterday we took Henry in for surgery to dock his tail and remove a little fatty 'growth' from his belly. He's recovering well, although the medication made him a bit loopy all night. I've finished with the summer semester, so he and I are hanging out for the next week so that he can heal up quietly and I can make sure he doesn't lick out his stitches (we considered asking the vet to take off a bit of his twelve-inch tongue, but decided against it, so his licking powers are still in full force). Now, mind you, he's still wagging like crazy, but because his tail's so short, it won't be a hazard to anyone or anything, including himself. Tomorrow we'll go back to the vet so they can change his nubbin bandage and make sure he's healing up okay, and then next week he'll get the stitches taken out of his tail and the staples taken out of his belly from the growth removal (As Trevor said, Henry lost one nubbin and gained another).

Once he's completely healed up, we'll add more pictures of his new nubbin. I'm sure you're all just dying to see it!

A Belated Father's Day Celebration

This past Sunday, 3/4 of the Power kids and their significant others went out with John and Fran Power for a post-Father's Day celebration. All 4 Power kids treated their pop to a day at Soldier Field to watch the Barcelona Football Club beat Chivas Guadelahara 5 goals to 2. We all ate before the game at the Eleven City Diner, where the food was good, though the ambiance left a bit to be desired (see Trevor's first ever Yelp review for the details--an addition to his review, they didn't have macaroni salad, which added a dent on its own to my opinion of the place. What 'traditional' deli doesn't have macaroni salad?!). We had a great time, and Trevor snapped a bunch of pictures to show it. It really brought us back to our honeymoon in December, and for that alone we enjoyed the outing.







(In this picture of Trevor and me, can anyone spot a fellow Manchester United fan in the crowd? Angi took this picture, and she made the comment that it was quite a good shot. I certainly agree with her!)

Lollapaolooza!

Friday night, Trevor got to go to Lollapalooza with Sean. Sean had been invited by Perry Ferrell himself at a party at the MCA. Sean had a VIP pass, so those two stinkers got to see Radiohead from a velvet-roped area while sipping free beer and snacking on cookies. I was jealous mostly about the cookies. Trevor also just informed me that there was some sort of a family night at Soldier Field, and half-way through the Radiohead show, fireworks went off behind the stage from Soldier Field's festivities. It sounded perfect, really. Especially because of the cookies.

I had fun, too, on Friday night. My friend Rebecca and I had dinner at Jerry's on Division, then headed to the Rainbo for beers. We'd been there for about an hour when Jack White and a friend--both festooned with fedoras--came in and sat next to us for a bit. Of course the bar was buzzing with excitement. I recognized him right away because of my own experience with meeting him years ago backstage at a White Stripes concert with my friend Krista (she was the one who got us backstage--I was the hanger-onner). We stayed a while longer to see if anything more exciting would happen. Nothing more exciting happened, so we left and I came home to Trevor, who told me all about his cookie-filled evening.

Today, we're celebrating a belated Father's Day at Soldier Field with John and Fran Power, Sean and Angi, and Neill and Fran at the Barcelona football game! They're playing Chivas Mexico, and it's looking to be an exciting game, though Trevor told me this morning that Lionel Messi has been released from Barca to play for Argentina in the Olympics. Twice now we'll have seen them, and neither times we'll have seen Messi play. He's only one of the best players in the game. Bologna. Trevor's already sporting his Eto'o jersey, and I've got to figure out a cool (literally--it's in the 80s today) way to wear my Barca socks. The eight of us are going to eat before the game, and then we'll wander over to Soldier Field. Our seats are in the 16th row, first section off of mid-field. We're already spazzing out with excitement.

I've got two more days of school before I'll have almost a week off. I just have to collect some final projects and give one final exam--and then grade all of these things and turn in the final grades. Lots of 'finals.' But by Tuesday night, all I'll have to look forward to is the final wag of Henry's tale before he gets it docked. More on that later. Until then, kick, kick, kick, Barcelona! Goooo, Barca!

Trevor is NAKED!

And it's freaking me out. His face, not the rest of him, startled me this afternoon as I walked up to meet him, Dan, and Simona Segar at J. Patrick's. They'd gone to see a space for rent with Desiree and Russ Grant, and met me up the street for a beer to talk about what they'd found before Dan and Simona had to go off to work. As I approached their sidewalk table, I noticed that Trevor looked different, even from the side. The stubbly profile I'd grown so accustomed to over the past few years seemed oddly absent. As he turned full-on to greet me, I realized that he'd SHAVED OFF his ENTIRE BEARD. And I'm still getting used to his totally, obscenely naked face. He apparently snuck in some shaving implements from the drug store yesterday afternoon and did it sneakily while I was at school this morning. He dropped about ten years and I'm still getting used to the change. He dimples are bigger, and I won't get any beard hairs in my smooches, which is great, but I still need a couple of days to get used to my new husband.

Pictures are coming, so you can see the nudity for yourselves. Happy Monday!

Yep, so, I've got myself a nameplate for my new office. I won't get keys to my new office until the second week of August (although I can get into it with the secretary's keys...) but it's still pretty cool. I requested that my title be listed as "Super Hero," instead of "Instructor of English," but I guess the sign guy didn't get the note. The office doesn't have a window, but there are loads of bookshelves upon which I can pile tomes and tomes of teaching materials and robots of various sizes. Now, after a nice long (but quite rewarding) thirteen hour day, I'm sitting here with Trevor and Henry, watching Keith Olbermann on MSNBC (he's so over-the-top and hilarious), drinking a glass of wine (Henry passed on his glass, but that's not stopping Trevor and me) and contemplating dinner.

Last night we met with Dan and the Grants to talk about the restaurant biz. After seeing the Grants' new venture, Logan Bar and Grill, we were thrilled to be able to pick their giant business brains about opening a bar. They were tremendously helpful for Trevor and Dan, and they're still willing to answer the boys' questions in the future, which is a tremendous help. As a bonus, we ate at Crust on Division and it was taaasteee. It's one of the only all-organic restaurants in the state (I think that's the right credential, though I might have gotten it wrong) and specializes in flatbread pizzas. Those were great, as was the bowl of gazpacho I slurped down, and as was the lemon cheesecake. Yum to the tum. Plus, Dan's old chum was the manager and he was awfully friendly to us, which we loved, of course. Afterwards the two boys and I went to Archie's in Dan's neighborhood to talk further shop and have a beer. An enjoyable evening all around.

Last weekend we saw The Dark Knight, and although I didn't spot myself in any of the scenes in which I was an extra (two scenes--look for me, I"ll be tiny, blurry, and short-haired), it was an AWESOME movie. Mom and Dad Bork got to see it at a premiere at the Navy Pier I-MAX; one of Dad's clients is a large machine dealer, so all of the weird machines in the film are his. They didn't enjoy it quite as much as Trevor and I did, but they said it was lot of fun when all of the machinery guys in the audience cheered when they spotted one of their machines. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the X-Files movie (Trevor's opting out of seeing it...) and I'm quite excited about it. I might go for a taco afterwards, and perhaps make a stop at Nordstrom on the way back. The new fall shoes might be on the floor, and I certainly can't go back to school wearing these old and worn flappers. Mulder, Scully, tacos, and new shoes--really, a perfect day. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

I want to believe, my fellow Lone Gunmen.

The Borks Come to the City!

Well, they're almost here, anyway. Mom and Dad Bork are thinking seriously about selling the house in the suburbs and moving downtown. We'd be thrilled to have them so close, and the place they're considering is sooooo coool. It's an old office building on Michigan Avenue that's been converted to condos. The windows in the units are the same windows from when it was an office building because it's a historical landmark and the facade can't be changed. I have a super crush on these big black-paned windows and am sold on it for those alone. It's also across from Millennium Park and the Bean, and walking distance to Macy's, also a major selling point. For me, anyway. I took some photos when we got to the unit after climbing up three flights of stairs from the 10th to the 13th floor (yes, they might live on the 13th floor. I warned my mom about poltergeists, but she didn't seem too concerned. We'll see how concerned she is when her furniture is stacked to the ceiling and her toy clown is trying to strangle her...). I was motivated to take the pictures because of our headgear.






It's warm here in Chicago, and humid, though not nearly as humid as the weather gurus kept predicting, and for that I'm pretty happy. I had to go to the Michigan Avenue Mac store yesterday to pick up Trevor's computer (the screen was getting fixed), and it was the release of the new iPhone. There was a line two blocks up the street and I overheard one of the employees say that the wait was 3-5 hours just to get in the store and buy your phone. They wouldn't even let me in! I had to show the guy my ID, give him the receipt for the repair work, and he went and got it for me. Luckily, all of those crazy folks only had 80-ish degrees of gorgeous weather to wait it, and not the 96 degrees and super-high humidity the news had promised. I think all of the rain we got Thursday night cut down on the heat.

Last night Trevor and I met both Dans and Mona at the AllRise Gallery, which has just relocated from Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park to a half block away from us on Grand (right across the street from our video store!). The show was actually really interesting, and the space is terrific. We'll certainly go back, and I hope they get some people in there to buy some art so they'll hang around.

After that, Trevor and the gang went out to Archie's Bar in Dan's neighborhood. I, being tired and lazy, went across the street to the video store to rent The Ruins, a B horror movie based on a book by Scott Smith. I'd listened to the book on tape a couple of months ago while commuting, and it was so much fun and terribly stressful; I was constantly yelling at the car stereo and gripping the steering wheel for dear life. The movie didn't disappoint, though it was less stressful simply because of the cut down length (which was necesssary), and the fact that the book was able to get, though the perfectly done third-person limited narration, into each of the four main characters' heads throughout their terrorizing journey. The movie was terrifically gory, which was absolutely to be expected since the book was just as, if not more, bloody. And it was pretty well done, even though some of the character traits were shifted, and of course plot and story points were changed. Scott Smith co-wrote the screenplay, which I'm sure contributed to the faithfullness to the book's creepiness. I'd not recommend this for the faint of heart, but if anyone's looking for a disgustingly bloody B horror movie, absolutely check it out. Read the book, too!

And speaking of third-person narration (when does anyone get to say that?) I heard the "Dueling Critics" on our WBEZ program 848 yesterday morning discussing the new play at the Chopin Theatre, The Strange Elephant. It's apparently a fantastic piece of 'meta-theater': the characters spend much of the play trying to capture and destroy the third-person narrator. It sounded like fun, and the production itself with the set pieces (an enormous mechanical elephant--who wouldn't want to see that?) would be a hoot. I'll try to convince Trevor to go. We also have to see the zombie play by the Sandbox Theatre Project. It's called Multi-Purpose Doom, and Lovely Lisa Munzenrider's boyfriend, Josh, was asked to participate. He turned it down. He turned down a play about zombies. I will never forgive him. We of course will go to see that one, especially since it's a guaranteed good time. The last play I saw them do was a romantic comedy set in a storefront neighborhood gym. One of the actors spent the entire 90 minute play on the treadmill. Seriously. It was hilarious.

And speaking of Lisa, we've got a lunch date so I'm going to spruce myself up to something presentable and meet her for a sandwich. I might persuade her to go the Penelope's to do a bit of shopping...

Rock on, True Believers!

A Words Only Post

Well, gang, we've had a busy couple of weeks and, as a result of our social butterflying, I let the blog slip along the wayside. But I'm back to share what it is we've been doing.

First, I will be the newest full time faculty member at McHenry County College! I got the job offer on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., accepted on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m., and have been planning how to organize my office since Wednesday at 2:31 p.m. It's all very exciting. It means good benefits for me and T., a bit more dough coming in to our bank accounts, and no more teaching out of my car between three campuses! It'll be really nice, especially since I'm already familiar with the school and the rest of the English faculty; it'll be a fairly easy transition.

Last weekend we got together with multiple out-of-towners. Sunday, my friend Brenda and her husband, Derek, were in town from Fargo. They were doing some style re-con for Brenda's brother Mark's gallery (also in Fargo). They're planning on having an art gallery in the front of a space they've found, a yoga studio in the back for Brenda to teach classes, and (in the future) a coffee shop there so that the Fargo-ans will be able to get a decent cup of joe (which apparently they're sorely lacking now). So they had a list of cool spots to check out for style/architecture/design ideas, and we met them for beer and pizza on Sunday night. We hadn't seen either of them in over a year--actually, more like two, when we visited the Northeast and stayed with them in Portland a couple of summers ago. It was wonderful to see them, and we hooked up with them on Tuesday night, as well, for dinner at the Green Zebra.

Monday night was a family night: Trevor's cousin Amy (Trevor's dad's sister's daughter) was in town from Toronto at a medical conference. She's a doctor in Canada, though she's only been there a couple of years. She likes it, but misses Dublin (her hometown) a bit. Trevor and I, his dad and Fran, and Sean and Angi were able to go to dinner with her at a great restaurant in our neighborhood. Regardless of where she'll be in the near future, we plan to see her again, hopefully soon. Trevor had spent time with her when he was visiting the family in Ireland, but that was years ago. The seven of us had a wonderful time, and we're going to harass her to see us again.

Tuesday was my second sitting for the tattoo, and after three hours in the chair (lordy it was painful by the end of that third hour...) I met up with Trevor, Brenda, and Derek at the restaurant for some deelicious dinner. I wasn't able to enjoy the second part of the meal, though, because I was achy and exhausted after my sitting. Luckily, the next afternoon, after I'd finished with class, I swung downtown to pick up B & D, then we visited Trevor at the gallery. They really liked it--the show is a lot of sculpture and installation, and quite interesting. The three of us headed to our hood (the terribly far 1.2 miles away from the gallery) and we grabbed a beer before I took them to the few blocks to the Blue Line to catch the train back to O'Hare for their 8 p.m. flight. I graded papers the rest of the night (or, as some would say, I passed out from exhaustion on the couch) and then was back up at 5 a.m. to head out for class.

Thursday, I was happy not to have a thing to do after class. It was 2 hours of driving to get back to the city from Crystal Lake on Thursday afternoon because so many people were heading downtown for fireworks. And of course I'd left my phone at home on the charger, so I had to listen to music instead of finishing my book on tape (Hell House by Richard Matheson--it's just okay, but it's almost over and I have to see who else survives the haunted mansion). But home was lovely once I got there, and Trevor and I did not much of anything to prepare for the Segar's BBQ the next night.

The Fourth of July came, and T. and I went to see Wall-E, which was cute, fun to watch, and just plain enjoyable. We thought of Greg because during the previews we saw a trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahuas, and we know that he, Paula, and the girls will be going to see that one as soon as it comes out. That night we went to Dan and Simona's BBQ. Lots of food was eaten, and lots of fireworks were set of by us (not me specifically, but Trevor) and the rest of the neighborhood. We didn't stay the whole night, because I'm an old lady who tires easily (and gets eaten by mosquitoes easily), but we had a great time.

Saturday came and we attended another BBQ to see some more out-of-towners. My old roommate Jenn was in from Massachusetts with her husband, Jeremy. Their friend Tara had a barbecue for them in Rogers Park, and we headed up there to grill up some Tofurki Sausage (tasty, actaully) and catch up with the Evanses. It was great to see them, and Jeremy admired my new tattoo (though made fun of my Sherman the Robot. Rude.). We're hoping to see them again before they leave, but they're not here for too long and seem to have a booked schedule. No matter what, though, it was so good to see them and it made us crave a visit out East soon.

Today, Trevor had an appointment at the Mac store's Genius Bar to fix his computer screen. His iPhone also had a screen issue, and they gave him a new one on the spot! His computer will take a couple of days to fix, but he backed everything up and is good to go on his old computer for the time being. We walked up to the MCA to catch the Jeff Koonz exhibit. We agreed that it wasn't our taste in art, but there were some terrifically interesting (and eye-catching) pieces. I think we spent more time in the MCA store than walking through the exhibit. We stopped at Chipotle for tacos, found some folders I needed for school tomorrow, and then saw Iron Man, which was F-U-N. Robert Downey Jr. was charismatic and made the movie as fun as it was. It looked great, was funny, charming, and just a perfect summer movie. Better than Wall-E, though they're not quite in the same genre, so it's not fair to compare them.

And now, after eating at our favorite Thai restaurant for dinner, we're home for the night with Henry (who, I haven't even mentioned, has been a kennel-coughing, blanket-eating, blanket-barfing, collar-gnawing spaz for the past two weeks). I am supposed to be grading student papers, but am writing this blog instead. And now that I have nothing else to describe, I guess I'll go do my work. Blergh!

A blog without words.

Laura's new tat.

Mods vs. Rockers, 2008

Trevor took off from work early yesterday afternoon, and we rode the Thruxton up to Delilah's bar for the annual Mods vs. Rockers motorcycle festival. There were blocks of bikes lined up on the street--bikes of all different sizes, shapes, colors, and coolness to be voted on for each different category. Our friend Sarah had entered her bike in the Vintage German category, and she won! Even though her bike is neither vintage (it's a 2005) nor is it German (it's a Russian Ural that 'borrowed' the German body style), the contest guys told her to enter her bike in that category because they didn't have a Russian bike category, and obviously the voters responded (though much to the chagrin of the owner of a vintage BMW parked next to Sarah's bike; he had a hard time grasping that the bike was owned by a woman, and then kept saying how he couldn't believe he'd been beaten by a Russian bike. He talked about it all night long.). Here's Sarah on her bike, proudly displaying her award, some shots of the street (that don't do the other bikes justice), and some pictures of the ride from Delilah's to the Bottom Lounge.







In other news, I started school this week and have been waking up at 5 a.m. to get on the highway at 6 a.m. for my morning classes. My Monday/Wednesday schedule isn't too bad because I only have one class that's finished by 11:45 a.m., so I'm home around 2 by the time I finish up office hours. But my Tuesday/Thursday schedule has me in two three hour classes with an hour break in between, and then on the road by 4 p.m.--just in time for rush hour traffic. This week I was in the car at 6 a.m. and back home from the 2 hour commute at the end of the day at 6 p.m. Awesome. I'll be working real hard to line up something closer to home for the fall. Ideally, I'd get rid of the CLC classes and only travel to Crystal Lake two days a week. We'll see what happens!

While I was on break between spring and summer semesters, I went to hang out with my mom in the Heights, and before we went to the theater to see 'Baby Dady' with Tina Fey and Amy Pohler (yes, it was funny and cute, and I'm pretty sure we both cried), I looked through some boxes full of my old junk that my parents have been keeping in the basement. And these are a couple of gems that I unearthed:





Yes, you're seeing these pictures correctly. I found an envelope containing my braces--the very same braces that were on my teeth. Repulsive, you say? Yes. Yes, they are. But also pretty cool. I also found a coupon for free frozen yogurt that my orthodontist gave me. I'm thinking that it might still be good.

The poster is of none other than Patrick Swayze and some other "hunks" from the 90s. I found it folded up in a shoe box with other treasures like my swim competition ribbons (a large number of which were first place ribbons!), a pair of ballet shoes, a lot of weird pictures of me and the family on vacation and doing other prosaic activities in the Heights that I felt needed to be on film, shoe laces with my name all over them, and many, many other odds and ends (emphasis on the odds). It was quite a trip down memory lane, and although I threw out a lot of useless junk, I kept some equally useless but cool junk.

Tonight we're going up to the Evanston Golf Club to have dinner with the Nichols, Greg and Paula, and my parents for Fathers' Day, which should be fun. The rain has stopped (it was flood-scale early this morning--thunder, lightening, the whole shebang), and it's turned out to be a really nice afternoon. We're currently on the couch watching soccer as we have been for most of the day (although we paused to eat fried egg sandwiches and drink smoothies and coffee [not in the same cup], and Trevor called his pop to say happy Fathers' Day! and he talked to Jim to say the same). We'll have more updates to come, and I'll let you all know when my body finally adjusts to waking up at the crack of dawn. Yuck.

Happy Fathers' Day, all you dads!

There's So Much To Catch Up On!

First, here are my second two classes on their last day of school a few weeks ago. Please notice my absolute favorite student, Arturo, in his Manchester United jersey. He thought it would get him extra credit to wear it, but he's an "A" student anyway, so it only gave him the status of being my absolute favorite student.




They look so happy, don't they? Ahhhh. I start summer school on June 9th, so I still have another week to finish my syllabi, catch up on reading for class, and hang out with Trevor, Henry, Grandma, and anyone else I can squeeze in.

Last weekend Trevor and I went to Madison to visit Kate and Gil. We had a great time dog-parking, Rumikube-ing (it's a game Kate taught us and one I never seemed to win, but was certainly fun to play), and grilling.



Trevor and I started listening to "Live and Let Die," the second James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, which was so much fun. It was full of sharks (not my favorite thing and this was just another narrative that reinforced my unwillingness to go into any body of water other than a park district swimming pool) and excellent villains with great names. We pulled onto our street on Monday night with only an hour left to go in the story, so we finished it while eating dinner at home. The whole weekend was a success, and all of the Gil playing wore Henry down to the bone. He slept alllll day on Tuesday, only popping his head out of his crate to eat dinner and give a couple of lackluster licks.

I drove up to the Prime Outlet mall in Kenosha to meet Kate and Keenan, who drove down from Milwaukee (Kate did most of the driving...) for our biannual meet-n-shop. I got some lovely summer work clothes for me, some unmentionables for Trevor (with little motorcycles on them!), and some snapshots of the cuter-than-cute Keenan.






Now, his sister, Ella, is fabulously cute, but Keenan seems to be just as much of a doll in a boy kind of way. He slept the entire time Kate and I shopped and only woke because Kate needed to feed him. He looks just like his dad, and Ella looks just like Kate, so they've pretty much conquered the beautiful family.

Today is laundry day, and Henry decided to help me this morning. He helped me sort this pile, and wasn't at all dissuaded when the clothes started to pile up on him...




Well, there's laundry to fold and reading to be done, so more to come later!